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This article originally appeared in Billboard magazine, June 2000
Fates Warning Is 'disconnected' By Clay Marshall LOS ANGELES -- Though it clocks in at roughly 50 minutes, Fates Warning's ninth studio album, "disconnected," has only seven tracks. Still, that's six more than the veteran progressive-rock outfit included on its last record, 1997's "A Pleasant Shade Of Gray," which featured a single 50-minute song divided into 12 parts. "To do something similar 
would have been an easy
way out," says guitarist Jim
Matheos of the set, to be
released July 25 by Metal
Blade Records. "The best
thing for me to do, and the
biggest inspiration, is to say, 'Let's do something different
now and stretch ourselves in the other direction.' "
To that end, vocalist Ray Alder takes a more active role
in the writing process for this album. Matheos, who
writes the group's music, has served as Fates Warning's
primary lyricist for years, but on "disconnected" Alder
pens the words to two songs, including the first single,
"One." Another "disconnected" track, "Pieces Of Me," is
the first lyrical collaboration between Alder and
Matheos.
Matheos says Alder's more active involvement helped to
lessen creative pressure and strengthen the album's
material. "I didn't want to fill up pages [with] words that
really meant nothing to me," he says.
Another area in which he believes "disconnected," which
features two songs that top the 10-minute mark, stands
out from the group's other releases is its engineering.
"The way the guitars were recorded was completely
different than anything we've ever done before," he
says.
The album's five vocal tracks -- an eerie, two-part
instrumental bookends the set -- contain recurring
images of separation and incompleteness reflective of
the album's title. "A lot of the songs we did try to tie
together, keeping that 'disconnected' theme," Matheos
says.
"Disconnected," like "Pleasant Shade," sees Fates
Warning collaborate with ex-Dream Theater keyboardist
Kevin Moore, as well Armored Saint's Joey Vera,
described by Matheos as Fates Warning's "permanent
temporary bass player."
Matheos says the self-managed group is tentatively
slated to tour in support of "disconnected" for six to eight
weeks in the U.S. and for six weeks in Europe. The
band toured extensively in support of "Pleasant Shade,"
documented on the live album "Still Life" and two live
home videos. Matheos says there are "real solid plans"
for another Fates Warning home video this fall, with
"studio footage, some live shows we did from Greece
last year, and a lot of old footage of different eras [of
the band]."
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